The Long Road

by

Nickelback

Edit

I became a Nickelback fan with Silver Side Up. Since then I've aquired their concert DVD, The State, and The Long Road. If Nickelback fans are expecting another Silver Side Up, then don't buy this album, it's not the same. The songs reflect the wild ride that Nickelback has been on since the whirlwind surrounding Silver Side Up. Silver Side Up had a lot of great songs, but in my opinion, the material on the Long Road has more maturity and depth than Silver Side Up. Songs like Figured You Out and Feelin' Way Too Damn Good have both depth and a meloncholy quality that will make this album endure. This album isn't for the occasional rock listener. It's like 80s rock meets 90s edgier music. The music itself is a bit repetitive, although very good. The lyrics are the reason that you must buy this album.

Nickelback is the very prototype of corporate rock: They're playing a style of music that has already been played to death, only they're even more commercial and radio-friendly than their influences, and their trite, simplistic lyrics (i.e. "I like your pants around your feet / I like the dirt that's on your knees") also give them widespread appeal. Essentially, Nickelback has no important statements to make, and nothing relevant to contribute to music as an art form - they're just a mindless corporate rock entity that's perfect for cranking up REALLY loud at your next fraternity party.

The band's fourth release, The Long Road, finds Nickelback rehashing the same themes and sounds as albums prior - is it just me, or do "How You Remind Me" and "Someday" sound like practically the same song? Go figure - leave it to corporate hacks like these guys to go and rewrite their hit songs. Frontman Chad Kroeger's angst comes off as artificial and contrived - rather than covering themes of abusive relationships and his father not being there when he needed him, now he's upset because of his band's touring commitments. I can't wait for Nickelback's next album - perhaps Kroeger will be irate about spilling a glass of milk, or maybe running out of cigarettes will ruin his day the next time around.

The bland watered-down fourth-tier grunge of Silver Side Up has been diluted even further, making the album even more accessible to adult contemporary audiences - one can imagine just as many soccer moms going to their concerts as frat boys. I don't picture this album as warranting repeated listening either: They made the mistake of putting the one energetic track on the album ("Flat On The Floor") at the very beginning - after that it's a monotonous stream of mid-tempo mediocrity ... if they had any idea of how to sequence an album, they would have put that track somewhere in the middle.

In summary: Nickelback doesn't fix what isn't broken - it's another album of slick, polished pseudo-grunge that takes even fewer chances than their previous releases. All the polish and glitz of this album's production can't hide the weak songwriting and unoriginality of this band.